Reupholstery

Remember this?  Last summer we bought  two chairs at a local auction.  They are Ercol chairs in a style we now know to call "Mid-Century".

The frames were sound, but the covers had seen better days.  New cushions from the company itself are available - for over five hundred pounds per chair.

We decided to continue the duck-egg theme since these are for the renovated front room in our Cumbrian cottage.  I found the fabric on an e-bay shop site  - it's intended to look like wool tweed but should withstand some wear.

First, I removed the old covers and unpicked them to use as pattern pieces.  I saved the zips to use again.  I cut out the pieces.

Assembling the seat cushions was a simple matter: insert zip, assemble complete side panel strip, stitch panel to top and bottom in turn.  Prise open zip and turn through.

The process for the back cushion was more complex, as the piece for the back and the piece for the front were completely different shapes yet had to be sewn together.  This is to accommodate the 3-D shape of the back cushion.

It seemed like an impossible task - and yet, it worked.  I pinned  and tacked the pieces to be sure that they would fit.

The final manoeuvre was to stitch the small curved base in place between the front and the back.  Fortunately, this went without a hitch.

So this is what they look like now:

You'll notice that the smaller chair has a buttoned back, as in the originals.  It took some pondering and some useful you-tube videos before we worked out how this was done, but we managed it this morning.  It does distort the check pattern, so the other chair may remain as it is.  We'll see.